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Going Unconventional to Market Movies

A MOVIE opening tomorrow, "Take the Lead," has an appropriate title, and not just because it is about dancing.

The studio releasing the film, New Line Cinema, wants to take the lead in finding alternative ways to market movies beyond traditional methods like advertising on television and in newspapers. It is a search that is also preoccupying the rest of Hollywood, anxious to reverse a slump in ticket sales.

For "Take the Lead" -- a romantic drama about a professional dancer who volunteers to teach all the right moves to New York City schoolchildren -- New Line is sponsoring such unusual marketing initiatives as a chance for computer users to create unofficial mash-ups. Those are mixed versions of music from the movie, using material available on the film's official Web site (taketheleadmovie.com).

New Line is also providing a variety of blogs, online social communities and Web sites with mash-ups of music and images from "Take the Lead" produced by professional D.J.'s and V.J.'s, which supplement the trailers for the movie being shown in theaters. The D.J.'s are also playing the mash-ups they produced during live events at clubs where they work.

Among the online sites where the mash-up trailers can be watched are Google Video (video.google.com), iFilm (ifilm.com), MySpace (myspace.com), TagWorld (tagworld.com) and YouTube (youtube.com).

New Line, which is part of Time Warner, has also marshaled a phalanx of promotional partners for "Take the Lead," including the Bloomingdale's division of Federated Department Stores, Circuit City, the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains owned by CKE Restaurants and Sally Beauty, a retailer of hair care and beauty supplies. The promotions include sweepstakes, merchandise giveaways and even a dance contest to be held at local chapters of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

"New Line is kind of pushing the envelope," said Steve Ellis, chief executive at Pump Audio in Tivoli, N.Y., which is providing the technology for the do-it-yourself online mash-ups.

The goal is to encourage consumers "to make a proactive decision to engage with this content," he added, "instead of bombarding them with ads."

The unconventional marketing ideas for "Take the Lead," which features Antonio Banderas and Alfre Woodard, are indicative of how serious studios are about finding new methods to woo moviegoers back into theaters.

In another example of the trend, a New Line competitor, Lionsgate, is co-producer of a coming film, "Akeelah and the Bee," with Starbucks Coffee, which is sponsoring screenings for its employees and promoting the movie in stores with ads on cardboard cup sleeves.

Through last weekend, revenue from movie ticket sales this year had risen less than 1 percent over the same period a year ago, according to data from Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box-office results, while the number of tickets sold had fallen 2 percent.

Those mediocre results came after a disappointing 2005, when revenue declined 5.2 percent, to $9 billion, from $9.5 billion, the National Association of Theater Owners reported. New Line had its share of flops last year, including "Son of the Mask" and "The New World."

To market "Take the Lead" effectively to its intended audience of younger moviegoers, "you can't force-feed them" with traditional top-down advertising, said Russell Schwartz, president for domestic marketing at New Line in New York.

Rather, "it's all about giving these kids our trailers, our songs, and letting them take control," he added. "Our assets become their assets, and that's how they become fans of the movie."

There are risks to that approach, Mr. Schwartz acknowledged, particularly since it yields results that are "not as trackable or researchable" as those for campaigns in mainstay media like television or print.

"The methodologies we have in place are not that valid anymore," he added. "But it is a new world, and we have to be brave about it." One benefit to shifting more of a movie's marketing budget to the new media is that "the Internet is not that costly," Mr. Schwartz said, adding that $1 million or $2 million is a significant amount to spend online.

Mr. Schwartz declined to discuss the marketing budget for "Take the Lead," a fictionalized version of the story told in "Mad Hot Ballroom," a popular documentary released last year by the Paramount Classics unit of Paramount Pictures, owned by Viacom. The budget is estimated to be around the average spent by a studio to publicize a release, which is about $40 million.

"The nice thing about the advertising is that it's using stuff that's originating in the movie," said Liz Friedlander, the director of "Take the Lead," who for the last decade has directed video clips for musical acts like Blink-182 as well as commercials for advertisers like McDonald's and Target.

"I definitely have strong opinions" about the advertising for the film, Ms. Friedlander said, "because I've had success in that medium and I've had failure in that medium, and I've learned from both."

Ms. Friedlander said she approved of the nontraditional steps New Line was taking because they "let people know it's a different ride" from what they might be expecting if they were familiar with "Mad Hot Ballroom" or fictional films about teachers like "To Sir, With Love."

Jan Roberts, public relations director at Sally Beauty, a national chain of 2,100 stores, said that movie studios frequently ask her company to sponsor coming releases.

The promotion between Sally Beauty, based in Denton, Tex., and "Take the Lead" includes posters in stores and the distribution of 220,000 booklets titled "Prep for Prom," which include coupons and information about a sweepstakes on the company's Web site (sallybeauty .com).

The relationship between a movie about dancing and prom season, a busy time for Sally Beauty, was also a draw, Ms. Roberts said.

In the two weeks that the promotion has been in the marketplace, she added, "we're seeing a very positive trend in both redemption of coupons and sales."